Building and Facilities

The first Dairy Industry building was a creamery and instruction in buttermaking and cheesemaking was offered in 1908. The building was of frame construction and was located o what is now Peter J. Shields Ave. in the northeast corner of the present library block. It was equipped with offices, a large lecture room, a testing laboratory, and two large dairy manufacturing rooms. Refrigeration, a steam power plant and cold storage rooms ere also provided. In 1909 equipment was purchased to make possible instruction in market milk processing and ice cream manufacture. This building was used for dairy industry instruction until the completion of the present building, when it was turned over to the Division of Soils and Irrigation. This building was destroyed along with many valuable records in a spectacular fire in 1938.

It had become apparent by 1917 that the University should undertake major academic instruction in dairy industry and that the original creamery was not suited for this purpose./ Consequently, an appropriation of $50,000 for a new Dairy Industry building was sought and obtained from the state legislature. However, the advent of World War I and the resulting high cost of building materials caused a postponement of construction. In 1919 additional funds were appropriated and a larger Dairy Industry building was constructed. It was completed in 1922 at a cost of $205,000 and manufacturing equipment costing $25,000 was installed. The building was dedicated October 24,1922 with appropriate ceremonies.

The creamery had been remodeled through the years. Immediately following World War II completely new refrigeration equipment was installed, replacing the brine system with a direct expansion ammonia system. The shop area was taken over for milk drying equipment and a new building was erected just west of the south end of the creamery to house the shop and a creamery supply storeroom. A cooling tower was erected on the roof of this structure. The receiving room was remodeled for tank truck milk collection and an addition was made to house a bottle washer and can washer. Similarly, up-to-date equipment was purchased to replace obsolete and worn out machinery in the processing plant. At that time of discontinuance of commercial operations in 1959 the creamery was reasonably well equipped with modern machinery for processing market milk, ice cream, cheese and butter, including high- temperature short-time pasteurizes, vacuum flavor-removal devices, paper-container fillers, continuous ice cream freezers, mechanical cheese stirrer, and a metal churn, to list a few of the major items.

The Dairy Industry Building was renamed Roadhouse Hall in honor of Dr. C. L. Roadhouse, with appropriate ceremonies on October 26, 1963.

The Dairy Industry faculty began with Professor Leroy Anderson in 1900 even though some lectures had been given earlier by Professors Wickson and Jaffa as noted above. Anderson was a dairy technologist and gave instruction in butter and cheese manufacture, testing milk for fat and adulterations and dairy machinery operations. He was head of the Division when it was established on the Davis campus and became Superintendent of the University Farm School in 1909. He held this position until 1913 when H. E. Van Norman was appointed Dean of the University Farm School. Anderson apparently justify the University at that time as his name does not appear in subsequent college announcements.

Assisting Anderson on the Dairy Industry faculty at Davis were E. H. Hagemann, and H. A. Hopper. Mr. Leon M. Davis was added to the staff in 1909 and became head of the dairy industry work in 1911. He resigned in 1915 to join the U. S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D. C., later becoming Head of the Market News Reporting Service until his retirement in 1955. H. A. Ruehe's name appears on the roster from 1911 to 1913. Ruehe later was head of the Department of Dairy Husbandry at the University of Illinois and then became Executive Secretary of the American Butter Institute. Other names well known to dairy industry people during these early years are: H. S. Baird who served from 1913 to 1921, and who later became manager for the Golden State Company in Santa Barbara; S. L. Denning 1917-1921, who became an official in the International Dairy Supply Co., a subsidiary of Foremost, supplying milk to U. S. military in the Orient; and J. C. Marquardt who went to Cornell University and was well known as cheese technologist.

C. L. Roadhouse, who had been in charge of the University certified dairy in Berkeley, and was veterinarian to the Certified Milk Commissions of San Francisco and Alameda counties, came to the Davis campus as Head of the Division of Dairy Industry in 1917. He held this position until 1944 when he resigned the chairmanship because of illness but continued on the active faculty until his retirement in 1951.

Roadhouse was brought to the Davis Campus to establish a faculty qualified to inaugurate a major curriculum in Dairy Industry of degree caliber. In line with his responsibility, he brought into the University C. A. Phillips and G. D. Turnbow in 1921, F. H. Abbott and C. S. Mudge in 1922, D. H. Nelson in 1924, G. A. Richardson in 1928, W. C. Cole in 1929 to fill the vacancy caused by G. D. Turnbow's resignation, and J. L. Henderson the same year.; F. R. Smith and N. P. Tarassuk, Assistants in Dairy Bacteriology and Dairy Chemistry respectively in 1932, and E. L. Jack in 1937 to fill the vacancy caused D. H. Nelson's resignation. Among this group Phillips, Turnbow, Nelson, Cole and Jack were classified as Dairy Technologist, whereas Mudge, with Smith's later assistance, introduced bacteriology and Richardson, similarly with Tarassuck's assistance, introduced dairy chemistry. Phillip's specialty was cheese technology, he was responsible also for substantial amount of 2-year instruction. Turnbow, and later Cole, were ice cream specialist. Turnbow while in the University developed many commercially useful patents o ice cream production. He served also as Creamery manager during his tenure. Nelson carried the bulk of the 2-year instruction and was responsible for butter technology. Abbott was appointed to initiate a program in butter standardization which later expanded into a somewhat broader extension program. He also devoted considerable time to the secretaryship of the California Creamery Operator's' Association. Roadhouse, with assistance fro Henderson, carried the responsibility for instruction in market milk.

The impact of World War II forced major changes on the personnel of the Department as well as its activities. During 1943, '44 and '45 classes were suspended and the campus was occupied by the Signal Corps of the U. S. Army. Faculty activities were toward research and public service helpful to the war effort. As a consequence of the war, most of the younger men were in military service. For an interim period, 1944-46, following Roadhouse's resignation as Head of the Division, Phillips served as Acting Head. However, with the implementation of the California Dairy Industry Advisory Board Act in 1946 Jack was named Chairman. In addition to the general responsibilities of the chairmanship, he had the obligation to initiate the CDIAB research program. The depletions caused by the war and other dislocations required a major rebuilding job.

Among the departures Cole had gone to Arden Farms as Director of Quality Control; Henderson had joined the research staff of the Golden State Co., later becoming Superintendent of Quality Control, and continuing in this position with the successor company, Foremost; Richardson took a year's leave of absence to lecture at Oregon State College and remained there permanently; Smith participated in military research and later went to Pet Milk Co. as a research bacteriologist where he subsequently became Director of Quality Control for this organization; Mudge also split from the Department to become Chairman of the newly established Department of Bacteriology.

Recruiting new faculty was difficult for a few years immediately following World War II as most universities were in similar position and there had been very few graduated for several years. Research personnel in the persons of H. Shipstead and A. Lachmann were added in 1947-8 to undertake certain aspects of the CDIAB program. Shipstead had been a specialist in dry milk with the Borden Company and Lachmann was a physical chemist who undertook studies of ice cream shrinkage. However, by 1949 it became possible to appoint permanent faculty. W. L. Dunkley, a graduate from Alberta and University of Wisconsin and a research chemist from the Golden State Company, was appointed to carry on the market milk work, including milk flavors. John Erway, a U.C.D. graduate was appointed as chemist, and Karl Johansson from the University of Wisconsin was named bacteriologist. B. E. Hubbell, Jr. from Penn State and National Dairy Products Corp. was appointed Creamery Manager. Johansson justify after one year and was succeeded by E. B. Collins, a graduate of Clemson and Iowa State College. Erway went into military service after two years and was succeeded by W. G. Jennings, a U.C.D. graduate. T. A. Nickerson, also a U.C.D. graduate with his Ph.D. from University of Minnesota, joined the faculty in 1950 and L. M. Smith from Alberta with his Ph.D. from U.C.D. was appointed in 1954. This group -- Dunkley, Collins, Jennings, Nickerson, Smith, Hubbell and Shipstead -- along with the continuing members of the faculty, Roadhouse, Phillips, Abbott, Tarassuk, and Jack, remained intact until the dissolution of the Department or their retirement -- Roadhouse 1951, and Phillips 1960.

In the early years, the Creamery was managed by a faculty member with other responsibilities and assisted by a superintendent. Turnbow, erstwhile president and chairman of the board of Foremost, with H. A. Spilman, more recently vice president of Foremost, carried this work for a number of years. E. L. Wetmore was the first manager appointed specifically for that duty. He continued in that position until the mid-1930's when he resigned to accept a position with the Challenge Cream and Butter Association. He was succeeded by Eliot E. Brown who served until 1939 when he, too, joined the Challenge organization. E. L. Scaramella took over at that time and remained until 1943 when he was commissioned an officer in the U. S. Navy. Dairy Service; Manny and Chris Graves, later executives with Beckley's Ice Cream Co., Long Beach; Ralph Stewart, afterwards a pilot with United Air Lines; Emmert Jensen still at U.C.D.; Fred Kopp, cheese maker, now retired in Grass Valley; Delbert Montgomery, maintenance man, now proprietor of Del's Fixit Shop in Davis; and Homer Dietz, maintenance man, still at U.C.D. These people in addition to providing the continuing operational staff for the creamery, assisted materially from time to time in practical student instruction.